Versunkenes sowjetisches U-Boot lässt Jahrzehnte später stillschweigend Strahlung austreten. Während der Reaktor des atomgetriebenen Angriffs-U-Bootes „korrodiert“ zu sein scheint, konnte durch die jahrelange Zusammenarbeit mit den russischen Behörden eine echte Seekatastrophe verhindert werden.

>The Soviets only built one nuclear-powered attack sub like Komsomolets (K-278). Its inner and outer hulls were both forged from a titanium alloy capable of carrying its crew deeper than any other vessel of its era. Today, however, over 30 years later, Komsomolets lies trapped down there permanently—5,511 feet (1,680 meters) below the Norwegian Sea—with two nuclear weapons and a leaking nuclear reactor.

>That said, the situation is actually remarkably under control, according to researchers with Norway’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority and its Institute of Marine Research. Their new study integrates sonar and video survey data alongside seawater, sediment, and biological samples, all collected near the K-278 wreck in July 2019. Their main takeaway: Russian leaders pulled off a surprisingly solid environmental remediation plan, even after the Berlin Wall fell.

>“It was an incredible effort, especially given the state in which the country was in the early 1990s,” noted Svetlana Savranskaya, director of Russia programs for George Washington University‘s National Security Archive, who reviewed the new study for Gizmodo.

>“The [study](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2520144123) that’s coming out from Norway confirms what I saw in multiple Soviet and Russian documents,” said Savranskaya, who has extensively probed similar cases of Soviet submarine crises. “They saw it as one of their top priorities to make sure that it was secured, that it was cleaned up, that it was transparent, and that they could be trusted by other international actors.”

Is “quietly” a scientific term?

Who’d have thought Godzilla would be born in a fjord.

Umm.. Didn’t the Alpha class have a similar titanium hull problem that led to those boats „disappearing“? 1983 fast attack submarine sonar tech me remembers…